Ecclesiastes 12:6 – before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, or the wheel at the well.
The pitcher and the fountain
The pitcher is the container, or the vessel that shapes the soul of man. The fountain is God himself, and the well is the heart. Just like the life of God is deposited into the golden bowl, the soul is contained in a spiritual vessel. This pitcher is joined together with the spirit through ligaments that interconnect, and they both share an intermediate organ, which is the heart. The pitcher of the soul encompasses the entire form of our body, as it will also impart vital energy to the entire organism.
Later on in this study, we will analyze these interconnections as well as the heart. What I want you to see in this moment is how our internal being is linked in all its parts.
Let us continue analyzing the different parts mentioned in the book of Ecclesiastes.
When the Lord began to reveal the anatomy of our being to me, he led me in a vision to understand a singular perspective in the dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well.
In the vision, Jesus represented the fountain of life within the golden bowl and he was offering the living waters of the spirit to the pitcher or soul, represented in the woman.
This dialog had always seemed very strange to me, because if it is looked at in the natural, one cannot make heads or tails of it. They jump from one topic to another without coherence.
It was extraordinary to hear this conversation from a different point of view; the spirit and the soul talking to one another.
We will now see how the story develops taking that point of view. Let us go to the Gospel of John chapter 4:6 – 26 and I will paraphrase the dialogue of the spirit and how the soul responds.
The Spirit – the fountain – must break the pitcher to cause the birth of a new creature.
John 4:6 – now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from his journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink.
The Spirit of God (Jesus) comes to the heart of man (well) and the thirsty soul (Samaritan woman) also comes to this place, from where she always extracts what encourages her, and where she seeks to be satisfied.
The Spirit, intending for the soul to recognize her lack, and inability to quench the thirst within her heart, challenged her to give him a drink.
John 4:9 – then the woman of Samaria to said to him, how is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink for me, a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
The carnal soul and mind, being enemies of the Spirit, and being used to reject what could come out of it, respond with logical reasoning.
John 4:10 – Jesus answered and said to her, if you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.
The Spirit, patient as always, illuminates the understanding of the soul by letting her know there are things that have been granted from God that she is unaware of. The soul is awakened in her curiosity, and in her desire to know the mysteries she has been unable to figure out. Now she has a new thirst, something she has never heard of and this has intrigued her: living water question
What is that like? She asked herself. The Spirit does not have all these formulas, programs and scriptures that have satisfied me throughout my life, she thinks. What does he plan to use to contain the water if he does not have a container to retain it, so it will not scatter? I’ve only been able to quench my thirst with water that I’m able to store and control, and he proposes living water that is better than the one in my bucket?
John 4:11 – the woman said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drink from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?
The soul, religious by nature, always hangs on to what she is familiar with, what her parents taught her, as well as traditions. That is where she feels secure. This is her first line of defense in resisting the life of the spirit, which is Impalpable and uncontainable, unprecedented and unfathomable. She is terrified of what she cannot control or manage.
But the spirit is alive and is touching the most sensitive fibers of the soul. It is bringing her out of balance in order for her to see her true and eternal need.
Finally, the soul begins to give in, and a new line of questioning emerges from within. My heart is deep and full of needs, she concludes. It is a deep well, unfathomable, full of caves and hidden corners I only have access to. How can someone go into these remote places in my inner being and extract something that quenches my thirst? But… In all honesty, I am getting tired of coming to this well and still being thirsty all the time, she concludes.
John 4:13 – Jesus answered and said to her, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up and everlasting life. The woman said to him, sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.
The Spirit skillfully interprets that cycle of internal questioning and reveals himself to the soul. What comes out of his mouth is alive and reconnects the soul to eternity. This one word causes her whole anemic being to shake at the very second it touches her origin and destiny. This is the bait that traps her and causes the light of hope to shine upon her most terrible fear: death. This is the tormentor that has directed her all of her life and has had her under his serfdom. Suddenly she realizes that this tormentor is not in control of her life as she had always thought he was. She realizes that she needs something that genuinely leads her to the eternal truths so she will never thirst again. Humbling herself before her inability, she finally asks the Spirit, give me this water.
John 4:16 – Jesus said there, go, call your husband, come here. And the woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you have well said, I have no husband, for you have had 5 husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you truly spoke.
Everything seem to indicate that she had gone to the right place to receive living water, but the willingness of the soul to long for something from the spirit, was not enough for him to just give it to her.
The soul, in her longing to satisfy her primary needs of existence, marries to different ideals. She thinks to herself, what truly satisfies me? She then decides that if she finds true love and has a family that it will bring happiness. However, as time passes, she realizes that even though it is a great blessing, there is still an emptiness that leaves her unsatisfied.
She then chases another ideal and marries it. I will have lots of money! She obtains it with great effort, but comes to the conclusion that the more she accumulates and spends; she grows more and more bored.
Then she decides to marry a third ideal, something much more important than money; fame, and recognition and success. She obtains it with great effort and the world applauds her big name. Her name and her titles are on the doors of buildings and streets but she still comes to the same conclusion. True satisfaction of the soul is not there either.
She then thinks about doing something humanitarian. She longs to feel like a hero, a true altruist that loves the poor and the needy. But she does not quench her thirst with this either. All of this has done nothing but inflate her ego and which she has fed with all these things.
The last attempt of the soul is the one she considers the most sublime, and decides to become a servant of God.
She learns all the religious concepts and graduates from the top theological University. She learns to pray with understanding, to worship with established songs and to write the best sermons. She has all the answers according to the counseling manual to help her followers.
In the end all she has is an empty form, but not the essence. She calls God, her husband, and even though in the bottom of her soul she knows there is something more she has not yet reached, she does not have the strength or the motivation to change. She has filled herself with so many formulas and religious vocabulary that she knows differs from the reality of her life. The problem is that it is too painful for the soul to admit that everything that derives from her is dead works. It is heartbreaking for her to think that her own acts of righteousness look as filthy rags before God.
Isaiah 64:6 – but we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
The soul that has filled herself with religiosity is the most difficult to be touched and transformed by the Spirit of life, but nothing impossible for God.
It is precisely there when the Spirit bursts in and knocks on the door of the heart – for you have had 5 husbands, and one whom you now have is not your husband.
But… Jesus is my husband! exclaims the religious soul. I sing you love songs and serve in church every day. Isn’t that what you request from me?
The spirit then responds: you are married to many things, many man-made theologies, and traditions I never established. My spirit cannot be fused with yours until you leave all those husbands and consecrate yourself to me so you can know me as I am, and how I have conceived you. Only then can I give you the water of life.
The soul then humbles herself and says, the one whom I now have is not my husband.
The soul has now recognized its thirst, its spiritual state, but even then, her religious structures continue to argue with the Spirit. The soul is focused on the earth: where is the actual physical place I should worship? She wonders.
The woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you are a profit. Our father’s worship done this mountain, and you Jesus say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship. – John 4:19 – 20.
Jesus had come to establish a kingdom in the Spirit. The dispensation of the soul subject to the law, fulfilling forms and physical ordinances had come to an end. Now, the union between God and man would be established and God would make himself known through the spirit, not through works, but through grace and through faith.
The soul always looks to the things of the earth and the earthly Jerusalem. But, the Spirit opens her understanding and tells her, that times have changed and what was important in other generations will now be exchanged. The important thing will no longer be the natural realm but the spirit, which is the essence of God.
The soul has a difficult time understanding what Jesus said about worship will no longer be in Jerusalem; because the soul is religious and earthly by nature. This does not mean there aren’t godly people worshiping in the holy land. What he meant was that the center of worship was no longer going to be in the earthly realm, but in the spiritual.
John 4:21 – Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hours coming when you will neither worship on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and truth; for the father is seeking such to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
The spirit speaks to the soul about how this water of life manifests. First, it comes from our interior and then it exteriorizes in the form of spontaneous and prophetic worship. the Spirit says: it is necessary that you worship this way, in spirit, and through a soul that is aligned with the truth. He does not give an option for other types of worship.
The Spirit takes us into the introspection in which he took the Samaritan woman in order to convert us into true worshipers. Then this worship will flow out from the Golden bowl.
Every one of us must be converted into those trees planted by the Lord, by his river, producing the sound of waters that spring forth in true worship. We are the planting of God, but we are also the river. When we gather to worship in this way, united by the spirit, we become dozens and hundreds and thousands of streams of life that produce the sound of many waters where Jesus, the King of Kings manifest in his glory.
Revelation 19:6 – and I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, hallelujah! For the Lord God omnipotent reins!
Revelation 1: 13 – and in the midst of the 7 lampstands one like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes like a flame of fire; his feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and his voice as the sound of many waters
When the rivers are flowing from our interior, it is The Living water of the voice of Jesus in his glory that is heard. The soul is arrested and enveloped in this presence. The body of Christ unites and the waters flow out of the auditoriums and homes to touch the cities and cause everything to be vivified through the waters.
The sons of God become lush trees, full of the fruit of the Spirit. The spiritual brightness and splendor emanating from them are their leaves which heal the bodies and the city. No written song, no matter how beautiful or inspirational it may be, can produce the life and the impact of the worship that comes down from heaven and ascends to him once again. The Angels join in, as well as all the choirs in heaven.
John 4:25 – the woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming – was called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all things.
The soul cannot recognize the Messiah on its own. He is right in front of her and she is not able to discern it. Only the spirit is able to recognize the son of God and understand His presence in her inner being and in her worship. Only the spirit who has been born of God can recognize his kingdom and majesty. They are in the midst of us, here and now.
The soul cannot receive the spirit of the Messiah in herself; it is the spirit which receives it. She can only surrender to his Lordship.
This is why religion, which is formed as a structure within her soul, causes her to feel like she cannot reach God. Even with Christ manifesting right in front of her, because of her inability to perceive him, she will always seek something different; something external that makes her feel that he is the Messiah she was waiting for.
The spirit seeks the internal were God abides with man and where heaven and earth are united. The soul, either surrenders to the ruling of the spirit, or will remain waiting without ever experiencing the glory of God, which is Jesus Christ.
The dialogue between the spirit and the soul, culminates when Jesus says:
John 4:26 – Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he.
And Jesus is speaking to your soul right now. I am the one speaking to you. Listen to what I want to do in your spirit, and he who has ears to hear, hear.
Matthew 28:20 – teaching them to observe all, whatever I did command you, and lo, I am with you all the days – to the end of the age.
The well, the heart of man
The heart is one of the most important parts of our inner being and is the door that connects the spirit and soul. The comprehension of this spiritual organ opens up an extensive gamut of concepts and ramifications. For this reason, I will not deviate from the analysis of the spirit right now, but will leave the study of the heart for later on in this book – Chapter 9.